Archive for September, 2010

Tennis is a sport that people usually play individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a racquet that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent’s court. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a good return.

USTA divides the country (Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam) into 17 regional sections. Each section “maintains its own staff to administer USTA programs, establishes its own tournament schedule and issues its own rankings.” They are employees of the USTA.

Each region appoints a Local League Coordinator who has a steady day job but plenty free time in front of a computer screen to manage the region from A to Z, as the side gag. They have their own rules, in addition to the USTA’s. Under them, are the flight coordinator to run each event: Manhattan mixed doubles 7.0. They are all compensated. The mass emails show many work in real estate, IT, government and event planning – a profession that provides abundant screen time.

USTA organizational structure:

USTA

Lauren Bull, Adult League Manager, www.eastern.usta.com

Deborah-Rose Andrews, Local League Coordinator – Metro (Cathy Miller of Long Island)

Sheila Astudillo <astudillo@columbia.edu>

The timeline of a Metro season

Met Manhattan mixed 2013:

Sept 22, 2012: Call for Captain

Oct 1, 2012: to email the coordinator that you want to captain a team

Oct 4, 2012: preliminary roster due

Oct 25, 2012: the captain’s meeting

.. match schedule and rules sent to the captains ..

Nov 5, 2012 – Feb 6, 2013: the regular season

Dec 15, 2012: Registration deadline (sign up for a team)

Feb 25 – Mar 3: the Flight playoff

May 5: the Regional playoff

May 31 – June 2: the Sectional playoff

..: the National

Metro Summer 2013:

Apr 30: Call for Captain

May 7: email the coordinator that you want to captain a team

May 7: preliminary roster

May 21: Captain’s meeting

Apr 10 – Jul 14: the regular season

July 1: Registration deadline (sign up for a team)

July 23: the Local playoff (Manhattan; Queens, etc.)

Aug 2: the (Metro) Regional

Aug 9: the Sectional

Oct 25: the National

LI mixed doubles 2013

9/30/2012: email from LLC

10/12: deadline to register a team

12/14: must have three men/women registered on the team

10/19: schedule: suggests the weekend; 2 captains work out the details

11/11 – 4/26 the season

1/1/2013: registration deadline

5/5: playoff

The rating
To level the playing field the USTA developed a rating system, NTRP (National Tennis Rating Program). The definition of each level determines where one could play. The lowest level is 1.5 who is just starting out with the ability to get the ball into play to 7.0 like Serena and Roger. The 7.0 I’m writing about is the combined rating of two players. It could be 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/3.5.

I’m weak: 10:40pm flight out to Asia and I haven’t packed yet, but when the US Open is calling, I dash off to Flushing in no time. It’s day 10 of the two weeks long tournament. A glorious sunny day, cerulean blue sky n all that.

Jordan and I watched women’s doubles quarterfinals between Y. Chan and Jie Zheng vs Bethanie Lynn Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy. The Chinese pair won over the Americans.

Zheng Jie’s coach (can’t recall his name but he looks very familiar) in white cap came over to rally us to cheer for Zheng Jie.
“I’ll count to 3 .. you’ll say 郑洁加油” .. make an extra effort.
True to his words, he would shout in good Mandarin
“一,二, 三, ..”
We would chime in with “郑洁加油 ..” The echo worked: they won, despite 64-mile serve.

Zheng had double fault and her second serve came at 64 .. but the China dolls managed to win with persistence and remarkable retrievals. By 10th day, most matches were done, courts became vacant

Le Meridien (Starwood) on Nanjing Road East in Shanghai. A great location, but the lobby is less than desirable. Stacks of moon cakes piled high, in prominent displayed near the entrance, and were being handed out. AT first I thought it were the guest who stays at the hotel. But after I walked a bit on the street did I realize what’s going on. Still, I didn’t understand why the hotel would want to get on distributing moon cake business.

The living room looks out to the east and the bathroom looks out to the Bund and beyond.
A while back, in a mocking article on New York magazine projected that by 2020, Americans would rush to China to find a job, like cute white college grad waiting at restaurants or being baby sitters who speak perfect Mandarin. Well, I don’t know if we need to wait that long. At one lounge at the hotel I spotted a tall and pretty cute blond among waiting staff. Was she a trainee of some sort, or just a back packer who would do anything to stretch her stay at a foreign city. Would people feel odd if a Chinese waiting at a hotel in Zambia?
This xiao long bao juicy dumpling tastes pretty good.

According to friends playing tennis in Shanghai can be a hassle and expensive proposition. So I largely wrote it off. Didn’t bring my gears. But then thought what’s the heck. Let’s try. Tried to line up with a coach who would provide me with a racket .. .. but that didn’t happen.
Then I spotted a tennis court from YZ’s apartment
“Yes you can play here.” He assured me.
I spotted few courts from this hotel .. don’t remember its name .. sorry senior moment ..
When I went to pick up Auntie Ida I found a cluster of courts in her gated community.
And the courts were empty too!

Lookin’ for something? Not the balls I hope?
Jimbo told us this story: he met parents of a promising young golfer. The parents took turn to caddy and chaperoned him around for tournaments that starts from Hawaii in January and gradually moved to the east coast; mortgaged their house to support their child, lesson, practice, travel, tutor .. and the boy is ranked … 1000+ nationally.

Day (or night) 3 at the 2010 US Open
Pumpkin called over to this court,
“Mom, watch his serve ..”
Someone is flying
And his racket has two handles.
Cool
All in the name of a good game.Kai-Chen Chang has matured a lot, built up and out a lot too.

With all the fame and wealth Rafa Nadal just can’t find a comfy undie. Does it tell us to be happy with what we’ve got (or given)?.

We watched the little tree John Isner play .. so did Patrick Mcenroe and his Aussie sidekick ..

Andy Roddick is arguing while John Mcenroe is looking on .. Did Mc wish that he were down there?
We’re not worth .. we’re not worth ..